Contact: Jim Torres (617) 529-1670, JimTorres@SpeakEasyStage.Com

(BOSTON) – In celebration of the play’s 70th anniversary, SpeakEasy Stage kicks off its 16th season Friday, September 22, 2006, with a revival of the classic Clare Boothe Luce comedy THE WOMEN.

This stinging social satire will run for five weeks, thru October 21, 2006, in the Nancy and Edward Roberts Studio Theatre in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont Street in Boston’s South End.

Scott Edmiston, the 2006 Norton Award-winner for Best Director (Five by Tenn), helms the project, which features an all-female cast made up of many of Boston’s best actresses, including Nancy E. Carroll, Aimee Doherty, Ellen Colton, Kerry Dowling, Alice Duffy, Anne Gottlieb, Amanda Good Hennessey, Maureen Keiller, Mary Klug and Sonya Raye.

Set in the 1930s, the play chronicles infidelity and infighting among a group of rich Manhattan socialites. Dear Mary Haines thinks she has the perfect life, until her gossipy “friends” reveal that her beloved husband Stephen is having an affair with sultry salesgirl Crystal Allen. When news of the affair hits the tabloids, Mary heads to Reno for a divorce, but soon begins to question her decision. What follows is a biting satire on the idleness of wealthy wives, for whom martinis, mudpacks and meddling are just favorite ways to pass the time.

THE WOMEN debuted on Broadway in 1936 and set Broadway attendance records for a non-musical at that that time, running 657 performances, and subsequently touring the United States and eighteen countries. Although filled with biting social commentary about gender and class inequality during the Great Depression, the play was mostly embraced by audiences for its witty dialogue and for the novelty of seeing an all-woman, forty person cast.

Many people, of course, are familiar with the film version of the play, made by MGM in 1939. With an all-star cast that included Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford and Rosalind Russell, the movie adaptation of THE WOMEN developed a cult following that lives on to this day.

Due to the play’s cast size and extensive production demands, THE WOMEN has rarely been revived, most notably in 1994 in a production directed by Anne Bogart for Hartford Stage; and in 2001, in a version staged by Scott Elliott for New York City’s Roundabout Theater Company.

THE WOMEN was Clare Boothe Luce’s first success as a playwright, a career she began after working as an editorial assistant at Vogue and as managing editor of Vanity Fair. The play was first produced just months after Clare Boothe married Henry Robinson Luce, the publisher and founder of Time and Fortune magazines. A woman of great ambitions and diverse interests, Ms. Luce abandoned her stage career after writing just two more plays, Kiss the Boys Goodbye (1938) and Margin of Error (1939), both Broadway successes. In 1940, she traveled to Europe to begin work as a foreign correspondent for her husband’s newest publication, Life magazine. That trip marked the beginning of a new phase of her life, a remarkable period of over forty years during which Ms. Luce served at various times as a journalist, politician, and diplomat, including stints as both a Congresswoman and as ambassador to Italy. In 1981, Ms. Luce was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to serve on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. She was later was honored with The Presidential Medal of Freedom.

The decision to open SpeakEasy’s season with a revival of THE WOMEN came about in part “because of a rare window of opportunity,” according to the company’s Producing Artistic Director Paul Daigneault.

“Both Scott and I are big fans of the play,” said Daigneault, “but we have always found the production and cast requirements to be a bit daunting. However, when we realized that our fellow theater companies were producing shows that held few roles for women, we jumped at the chance to do the show knowing that most of the city’s top actresses would be available.”

“THE WOMEN has been hailed as a pre-feminist masterpiece and condemned as misogynistic camp,” said Edmiston. “I discovered the play is worth revisiting both as a witty social document of its time and for its unexpected relevance. While class issues, gender roles, and opportunities for women have changed enormously in the past 70 years, I think society’s obsession with gossip, betrayal, and scandal have never been greater.”

“THE WOMEN was pioneering as a woman playwright’s perspective on America’s wealthy, privileged, social class – a world that Luce both admired and despised,” Edmiston added. “We decided not to approach the material as camp but with an honest and discerning eye for the lives of the characters.”

Playwright and director Moss Hart may have best articulated the reason for the endurance of THE WOMEN in a letter to Luce after rereading the play in 1949:

I was filled with admiration for it that, I must confess, I didn’t have at the time it was produced. It’s a first rate job, and to my mind a highly under-rated play. It’s a good deal more than just a slick, well-constructed play—it’s a highly civilized and biting comment on the social manners and moral of our society, and women’s place in it. I had no idea it was so good… I don’t think you ever got the credit you deserved for it.

For more information on THE WOMEN or on any of SpeakEasy’s 06-07 shows, the public is invited to call the BostonTheatreScene.com box office at 617-933-8600 or go online to www.BostonTheatreScene.com.

SpeakEasy Stage Company is a proud resident theatre company at the Boston Center for the Arts.

About Boston Center for the Arts
Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) is an urban cultural village, incubating and showcasing the performing and visual arts and artists of our time. Occupying a city block in Boston’s historic South End, the BCA provides a creative “home” for artists, a welcoming destination for audiences, and an arts connection for youth and community. For more information, visit www.bcaonline.org.

Press inquiries should be directed to
SpeakEasy Marketing Director Jim Torres:
Office: 617-482-3279 Cell: 617-529-1670
Email: JimTorres@SpeakEasyStage.com

Calendar Listing Information
THE WOMEN
By Clare Boothe Luce

Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company, a resident theatre company at the Boston Center for the Arts; Paul Daigneault, Producing Artistic Director

Featuring: Courtney Branigan, Shelly Brown, Nancy E. Carroll, Ellen Colton, Aimee Doherty, Kerry Dowling, Alice Duffy, Sheryl Faye, Anne Gottlieb, Elizabeth Hayes, Sandy Heffley, Amanda Good Hennessey, Maureen Keiller, Kerrie Kitto, Mary Klug, Georgia Lyman, Elisa MacDonald, Sonya Raye, Sophie Rich and Carly Sakolove

Directed by: Scott Edmiston

Production Stage Manager: Dawn Schall DesLauriers

Design Team: Brynna Bloomfield, set; Gail Astrid Buckley, costumes; Scott Clyve, lights; Dewey Dellay, sound/original music;
Jason Allen, hair & make-up

Performing at:
The Nancy and Edward Roberts Studio Theatre
in the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion
at the Boston Center for the Arts,
527 Tremont Street in Boston's South End

Press Performance: Sunday, September 24, 2006 3PM

Performance Schedule:
September 22-October 21, 2006
Wed., Thurs. at 7:30PM; Fri at 8 PM; Sat. at 4 & 8; Sun at 3PM
Added performances: Sunday 10/8 at 7PM; Tues. 10/17 at 7:30PM

Ticket Prices:
Tu, Wed., Th. 7:30PM; Fri. 8, Sun. 7PM -- $42.00 / $37.00 seniors
Sat. 4 & 8 PM; Sun. at 3PM -- $46.00 / $41.00 seniors

Student Rush:
$14 with valid college ID, at the box-office only, one hour before curtain, subject to availability

Box Office: 617-933-8600; www.BostonTheatreScene.com

Press Contact Only: Jim Torres – (617) 529-1670